Jeremiah 22

1The LORD says this: “Go down to the palace of Judah’s king and speak this message there. 2Say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne, you and your officials and your people who come in through these gates.

3The LORD says this: Practice justice and righteousness. Rescue anyone who has been robbed from the power of the oppressor. Do not mistreat the outsider, the orphan or the widow, do not use violence against them, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you are careful to do what this word commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come in through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, each with his officials and his people. 5But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this palace will become a ruin.’”

6For the LORD says this about the palace of the king of Judah: To me you are like Gilead, like the heights of Lebanon, but I will surely make you a wilderness, like towns where no one lives. 7I will appoint destroyers against you, each with his weapons. They will cut down your finest cedars and throw them into the fire. 8People of many nations will pass by this city and say to one another, “Why has the LORD treated this great city like this?” 9And the answer will be, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”

10Do not weep for the one who is dead; do not mourn for him. Weep and keep weeping for the one who is going away, because he will never return or see his homeland again.

11For the LORD says this about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of his father Josiah and has gone away from this place: He will never come back here. 12He will die in the place where they have taken him as a captive, and he will never see this land again.

13Woe to the man who builds his palace without righteousness and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his fellow citizens work for nothing and does not pay them their wages. 14He says, “I will build myself a huge palace with spacious upper rooms.” He cuts windows into it, panels it with cedar and paints it with vermilion. 15Does it make you a king to outdo others in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and also do justice and righteousness? Then all went well with him. 16He defended the cause of the poor and the needy, and then all was well. Is that not what it means to know me? declares the LORD. 17But your eyes and your heart are set on nothing but dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, and on practicing oppression and extortion.

18Therefore the LORD says this about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: No one will mourn for him, crying, “Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!” No one will mourn for him, crying, “Alas, my master! Alas, his majesty!” 19He will be buried the way a donkey is buried, dragged away and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20Climb up to Lebanon and cry out; let your voice be heard in Bashan; cry out from the Abarim mountains, for all your lovers have been crushed. 21I spoke to you while you felt secure, but you said, “I will not listen.” Ever since you were young you have behaved like this: you have not obeyed my voice. 22The wind will herd away all your shepherds, and your lovers will be carried into captivity. Then you will feel shame and disgrace because of all your wickedness. 23You who live in Lebanon, nesting among the cedars, how you will groan when the pains come on you, pain like a woman in labor! 24As surely as I live, declares the LORD: Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. 25I will hand you over to those who want to kill you, to those you fear, to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans. 26I will throw you and the mother who gave birth to you into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you will both die. 27They will long to return to this land, but they will never come back to it.

28Is this man Coniah a worthless, broken pot, a jar that no one wants? Why have he and his children been hurled out and thrown into a land they do not know? 29Land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!

30The LORD says this: Record this man as childless, a man who will not succeed in his lifetime, for none of his descendants will succeed in sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.